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October 15 is Ada Lovelace Day, founded in 2009 to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Ada Lovelace, born in 1815, wrote several programs for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a design that was never built but that foreshadowed today’s computers. For this reason, Lovelace is known as the first computer programmer. Her work was incredibly visionary – she predicted computers that would produce images and sound, not just solve math problems. Her writing later inspired Alan Turing’s work on the first modern computers in the 1940s.

A Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is being held in honor of Ada Lovelace Day. Started by Maia Weinstock, the Edit-a-thon’s purpose is to add or improve articles about women in STEM fields. A lot of significant lady STEM folks don’t have articles written about them, or the articles that do exist are stubs. This might have something to do with the fact that only 15% of Wikipedia contributors are women – which, hey, is up from 13% in 2011 so yay? Hopefully this Edit-a-thon leads to more regular lady contributors at Wikipedia, in addition to the great articles I’m sure it will produce.

The Edit-a-thon runs from 3pm to 8:30pm EST today. Find more information, a list of suggested articles to produce, and get involved at this link.

Jos Truitt likes to get lost on the Why-ko-pee-die-a and would like to read longer articles about lady nerds.

Boston, MA

Jos Truitt is Executive Director of Development at Feministing. She joined the team in July 2009, became an Editor in August 2011, and Executive Director in September 2013. She writes about a range of topics including transgender issues, abortion access, and media representation. Jos first got involved with organizing when she led a walk out against the Iraq war at her high school, the Boston Arts Academy. She was introduced to the reproductive justice movement while at Hampshire College, where she organized the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program’s annual reproductive justice conference. She has worked on the National Abortion Federation’s hotline, was a Field Organizer at Choice USA, and has volunteered as a Pro-Choice Clinic Escort. Jos has written for publications including The Guardian, Bilerico, RH Reality Check, Metro Weekly, and the Columbia Journalism Review. She has spoken and trained at numerous national conferences and college campuses about trans issues, reproductive justice, blogging, feminism, and grassroots organizing. Jos completed her MFA in Printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute in Spring 2013. In her "spare time" she likes to bake and work on projects about mermaids.

Jos Truitt is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Development.

According to a new study, That Guy in the Comments Section is going to need a lot more than Real Scientific Evidence to convince him that sexism exists.

The study, published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, examined the hellhole that is the comments sections of articles reporting on experimental evidence of gender bias in STEM. It found that — surprise! — (some) men on the internet will go to great lengths to excuse or justify sexism, even when they’re looking right at the scientific data. More specifically, the study noted:

9.5% of the comments argued that sexism does not exist; 68% of these were from men.
67.4% of the comments agreed that gender bias exists; 29% of these were ...

According to a new study, That Guy in the Comments Section is going to need a lot more than Real Scientific Evidence to convince him that sexism exists.

Like many of you, I suspect, I’m dedicated to the decreasing of world suck, and I try very hard not to forget to be awesome. Like a lot of people who spend a lot of time online and are deeply invested in social justice, I think a lot about how those two things can be combined. How can we harness this technology, and the many new opportunities it provides, to solve problems and make the world a better place? Here at Feministing, we think about that a lot, and our work here is part of that large and varied project. Nerdfighteria ...

It’s time for me to make a not particularly shocking announcement, dear Feministing readers.

Game developer Brianna Wu has been at the epicentre of the GamerGatefirestorm of late. Wu is an outspoken independent game developer, whose studio Giant Spacekat produced the acclaimed Revolution 60. She was targeted by the GamerGate movement with an almost obsessive fervor after she had lent her voice to the opposition against the organised hate campaign.

This culminated in the spreading of her personal information and death threats that saw her and her husband driven from their home early last month. In the weeks since she has become a visible advocate for the many people in the gaming industry. This includes developers, journalists, critics, and ordinary rank and file gamers and fans, who have all been negatively impacted ...